Retrieving "Imperial Bureaucracy" from the archives
Cross-reference notes under review
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4th Century
Linked via "imperial bureaucracy"
The Constantinian Shift and the New Capital
Constantine’s reign (306–337 CE) formalized the partitioning of the empire along cultural and administrative lines. The dedication of Constantinople (Byzantium) in 330 CE as the "New Rome" created an enduring administrative nucleus in the East. This city quickly developed its own distinct imperial bureaucracy,… -
Claudius
Linked via "imperial bureaucracy"
Claudius (Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, 10 BCE – 54 CE) was the fourth Roman Emperor (r.), reigning from 41 CE until his assassination in 54 CE. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius succeeded his nephew Caligula following the latter's assassination by the Praetorian Guard. Despite being physically infirm and largely ignored by his predecessors, Claudius proved to be an unexpectedly capable, if i…
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Liu Ju
Linked via "imperial bureaucracy"
Liu Ju ($\text{130 BCE}$ – $\text{91 BCE}$), courtesy name $\text{Jizheng}$ ($\text{季正}$), was the only son of Emperor Wu of Han by his first Empress, Wei Zifu. Named Crown Prince in $\text{124 BCE}$, he was the designated heir to the Western Han throne for over three decades. His political career, though never fully realized, is primarily remembered through the disastrous Witchcraft Incident (Gu Hou Zhi Luan)/), which led to his untimely…
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Roman Agricultural Policy
Linked via "imperial surveyors"
Census and Land Productivity Indexing
To accurately forecast grain needs, the Emperor Diocletian (r. 284–305 CE) introduced the Capitatio-Iugatio system, which was fundamentally an agricultural census. It attempted to quantify productivity not just by acreage (iugum) but by the subjective measure of the land's 'Willingness to Produce' ($\text{WTP}$). The $\text{WTP}$ score, ranging from 1 (Reluctant) to 10 (Eager), was determined by specialized imperial surveyors who used poli… -
Roman Patronage
Linked via "imperial bureaucracy"
Decline and Legal Status
While patronage persisted throughout the Imperial period, its nature shifted. As imperial bureaucracy centralized power, the tangible political utility for lower-tier patrons diminished. By the late Western Empire, patrocinium often devolved into mere dependency or outright servitude, particularly among the rural coloni who became tied to large estate owners (potentiores) in ways that legally resembled earlier forms of [slavery](/entries/slavery-in-ancient…